How to Use Social Media to Improve Revenues at Your Small Business

How to Use Social Media to Improve Revenues at Your Small BusinessBy Cliff Lopez

While Facebook and Twitter are great for checking in with friends and sharing photos with family, social media also presents an excellent opportunity to market your business. When you boost your “likes” and followers, you improve your online brand presence as well as your sales. Unfortunately, not all status updates are created equal, but there are some ways you can directly affect your bottom line via social media marketing. Read on to learn how to get it done:

1. Use Facebook to Accept Orders or Sales
Just as you would use Facebook to improve your business’s online presence, you can take it a step further by using it to accept orders or make sales. You can showcase your product line to a larger audience, and make it much more convenient for customers to make a purchase. If you need help getting this initiative out of the starting blocks, consider the software offered by Ecwid.

2. Use Twitter to Take Reservations or Appointments
Increasing your followers on Twitter is great, but what if you accepted reservations or appointments for service through it as well? You up the convenience factor for your clients, and as long as someone’s manning your account to look for reservation requests, you also improve the overall customer experience.

3. Use Social Media to Improve Customer Service
More and more customers and clients are using social media as a method for both complimenting a business and lodging complaints. Therefore, why not embrace this strategy by actively searching your accounts for ways to improve customer service at your business? Additionally, marketers can also suggest that their business actively elicit customer feedback via social media pages. Customers love the fact that they can have their voice heard by simply visiting your social media pages, and you might just cut down on traffic to your call center. It’s a win-win situation all around.

4. Use Pinterest to Give Your Customers a More In-Depth Look at Your Business
Pinterest is visual in nature, which means your posts need to rely on images and video to get your message across. Work for a hardware business? Post images along with how-to videos for basic DIY home repairs. How about a restaurant? Post photos of your back-of-house operations to show your customers that your operation is clean and sanitary.

5. Offer Live Chat on Your Website
Don’t you love it when you’re perusing a website for a possible purchase and the little “Chat With Us” button appears, with a ready and waiting call center rep available for your questions? Well, your customers are going to appreciate it too. Just be sure to post the hours when reps are available and make sure they are well-trained. The last thing you want is an extended chat conversation because an employee couldn’t directly answer the question.

Conclusion
If you decide to expand your social media efforts in ways that can directly affect profits at your company, just be sure you’re sticking with the basics. Post high-quality, relevant content on a timely basis and be careful if you’re automating your posts so you don’t alienate your following. Respond to each and every comment, and make sure you don’t become overly focused on revenue and forget your loyal social media fans.

Do you know of any other ways to improve company profits through social media?

Cliff Lopez is a business owner and social media consultant who frequently writes tips for increasing exposure via online platforms.